Early Bird Registration Ends May 15th!

Want to spend a weekend making friends and meeting leaders in the secular movement? Our Annual Conference is coming up, with two locations: ‪#‎SSAEast‬ in Columbus, OH, and ‪#‎SSAWest‬ in Phoenix, AZ! Early registration discounts end Thursday, May 15th!

Sunday Assembly Summer Volunteer Opportunity

The Sunday Assembly, which started in the UK and now has 26 locations worldwide, is trying to expand even more. They're planning on having 100 locations worldwide by the end of 2014. To reach that goal, they need the help of volunteer organizers during the summer to help. If you are interested then be sure to contact them about this opportunity.

Free 6 Month Amazon Prime Membership

Students get a free 6 month Amazon Prime membership. That means for six months you get free 2 day shipping, special deals and promotions specific to students and a $10 credit for every friend referred. All you need to do is sign up with an .edu email address or by various other means to prove you are a student and bask in the free Prime membership.

Featured SpeakerMonster On Sunday Monster On Sunday is an Atheist Rock band, formed 2012 in Portland Oregon, now based out of San Diego California. Songs range from punk-rock styles by artists such as Bad Religion and NOFX, to inspirational songs like "Imagine" by John Lennon. Monster On Sunday performs great live shows driven by the passionate voice of a female lead singer Tally Cass and backed by the heavy handed alternative guitar style of Steve Cass. Monster On Sunday has performed with Shelley Segal, and they are very active in their local atheist community. Book this awesome show today!Learn More

SSA Con West Be The Match Service Project

Be The Match is an organization that supports leukemia and lymphoma patients by managing the largest and most diverse bone marrow registry in the world. They assist doctors and those in need in finding donors that meet the needs of the patient.

There will be a table with reps from this organization at SSA West so you can sign up and get a check swab done. They will be available Friday afternoon (June 20th) so look out for their logo and say hello when you get a chance.

Affiliation Renewal Results

What We Found: Looking at the data from the affiliation renewals you-all filled out, we noticed that the groups that didn't survive the 2013-2014 school year had smaller than average attendance at events and smaller formal memberships as well as smaller Facebook groups and/or pages. The school year is basically over for most of you but it's still never too late to plan group promotion for the next school year. If your group is promoted well, recruitment and retention stays high and the group will last.

Featured Speaker Ashley MillerAshley F. Miller is a writer, activist, and communications scholar from South Carolina, who has worked for LGBT, secular, and women's rights for over a decade. She is one of the leading young women in the secular movement, speaking regularly at schools and conferences across the country about feminism and communications.Learn More

Dorm Housing for SSA - West

Don’t forget to register and get dorm housing for SSA West. You choose your housing on registration's 2nd page. Dorm registration for Arizona State University closes May 20th so get your rooms booked before time runs out!

Lobby Day Student Discount Week

This is a fantastic opportunity to directly engage your members of Congress with staff members of the SSA. You will get to talk on the secular issues you care about, like keeping taxpayer money from funding religious schools and making sure our policies are based on reason and science. For just $25, you get:

Coming Out Atheist Discount!

If your group buys five or more copies at once directly from Pitchstone, you can get them at a 40% discount off the $17.95 cover price (that's only $10.77!) and you'll even get free shipping! (Please note that this offer is only for physical print editions of the book, not ebooks or audiobooks and that the free shipping offer only applies to groups in the US.)

Featured Speaker David G. McAfee David Gregory McAfee known as David G. McAfee -- is an American author, journalist and religious studies scholar. Born in Roseville, California, on February 23, 1989, David Gregory McAfee moved to Santa Barbara, CA at the age of eighteen in order to pursue multiple degrees, in English and Religious Studies, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After graduating with two BAs, McAfee republished his first book under the new title, Disproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings. In December 2012, McAfee published Mom, Dad, I'm an Atheist: The Guide to Coming Out as a Non-BelieverLearn More

Amazon Smile contributions stack with the special link we told you about, so feel free to use them both to give even more of your sale to the SSA!

Commuter School Resource

It can be hard to organize student groups at commuter schools. Commuter schools have less of a culture for community since there are little to no dorms in the area. If students don't live there, it can hard to organize meetings or events and what not on campus. Without community, a group is not serving its purpose.

Commuter schools often attract more nontraditional students than 4 year colleges, so meetings and events need to be designed with the specific needs of non-traditional students in mind. This guide will be a resource to help you make the most out of a commuter school or community college environment.

Featured Speaker Steven Martin Steven Martin is a Professor of Communication at Ripon College, in Ripon, Wisconsin. He received his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Public Address from Penn State University. Steven Teaches courses on the rhetoric of social movements, U.S public address, political campaign communication, public speaking, argumentation theory, and metaphor and social problems. He is also the advisor of Secular Student Alliance at Ripon CollegeLearn More